The Glory of God

[Sean James]

Jesus loves us and leads our lives. While it may not turn out the way we thought, in heaven we will fully understand why He allowed all He did. Trust Him because He first loved you, and as you surrender unreservedly to Jesus, in the power of His converting grace He renews your heart and mind and imbues you with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Great joy comes from being in the center of God's will--as the most weighty trust and high honor God gives us is to have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings!

God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him. Not Enoch, who was translated to heaven, not Elijah, who ascended in a chariot of fire, was greater or more honored than John the Baptist, who perished alone in the dungeon. "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Philippians 1:29. And of all the gifts that Heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor.

May we never complain as we go along the life journey God leads us to experience, praising God for His love that sustains us even when we are in immense emotional or spiritual pain. Pain is not the enemy in our lives--sin is, and Jesus became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him. What a joy to do God's will by His imputed and imparted righteousness!

[Sean James]

Jesus longed to use the leaders in Israel to share the present truth for that generation, just as He desires us to share the present truth in this generation, the Three Angels' messages of Revelation 14:1-12, in light of the power of the gospel in a lived experience whereby all of the fruits of the Spirit are manifest in the life in affectionate obedience to God from a heart renewed by divine grace (Ephesians 2:8-10, Galatians 5:22-23, John 14:15, and Ezekiel 36:26-27). Look to Jesus and allow Him to use you to share that He is coming soon for a people that He has prepared!

If the leaders in Israel had received Christ, He would have honored them as His messengers to carry the gospel to the world. To them first was given the opportunity to become heralds of the kingdom and grace of God. But Israel knew not the time of her visitation. The jealousy and distrust of the Jewish leaders had ripened into open hatred, and the hearts of the people were turned away from Jesus.

May we never turn souls from Jesus, but point all to Him as the Lamb of God and as the High Priest interceding in the heavenly sanctuary to soon return as our King!

[Sean James]

Praise the Lord for the opportunity to be in the center of His will! Let us choose truth over error by walking by grace through faith in constant union and communion with Jesus!

Truth was unpopular in Christ's day. It is unpopular in our day. It has been unpopular ever since Satan first gave man a disrelish for it by presenting fables that lead to self-exaltation. Do we not today meet theories and doctrines that have no foundation in the word of God? Men cling as tenaciously to them as did the Jews to their traditions. 

Let us learn to trust God's word over anything else--no matter how strong the temptations that may come that contradict it! As we learn of Christ and surrender fully to Him, He fills us with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing as we obey Jesus with true, affectionate obedience!

[Sean James]

Let God use you just as you are as you let Him change you into the image of who He is--selfless love!

God takes men as they are, and educates them for His service, if they will yield themselves to Him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, will quicken all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfill the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness. Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and His disciple that the Christian becomes like Him in mind and character. Through a connection with Christ he will have clearer and broader views. His discernment will be more penetrative, his judgment better balanced. He who longs to be of service to Christ is so quickened by the life-giving power of the Sun of Righteousness that he is enabled to bear much fruit to the glory of God.

May you rejoice in Jesus constantly! He knows what is best for your life! Surrender all to Him and He will guide you continually!

[Sean James]

Praise the Lord for what the Holy Spirit can do in our lives!!

And "if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Romans 8:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. This is the word of comfort wherewith He bids us comfort one another.   

Let us be courageous and not despondent in the midst of great opposition, suffering and persecution. When Jesus lives in our hearts by a living faith surrender, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be in our lives without one missing!

[Sean James]

We need not be in fear when Jesus leads us in His perfect will! By choosing today to serve Him, yielding our will to Him so He can purify our hearts and minds by His divine grace, we can be happy, peaceful and obedient Christians no matter what the trial we may face! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will flow from our converted lives as we abide in Jesus!

As Jesus rested by faith in the Father's care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour. If the disciples had trusted in Him, they would have been kept in peace. Their fear in the time of danger revealed their unbelief. In their efforts to save themselves, they forgot Jesus; and it was only when, in despair of self-dependence, they turned to Him that He could give them help. 

Let us always turn to Jesus as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. We can look to Him continually, and He will guide us continually!

[Sean James]

We are invited to look to Jesus and to become like Him. The simplicity of the gospel encourages us to believe in God's grace--the power to transform a sinner into a saint--and by a living faith surrender invite Jesus to abide in the heart that He recreates in His purity so all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be manifest in our lives. Then we can gladly and affectionately obey God's law of love!

Jesus continues: As you confess Me before men, so I will confess you before God and the holy angels. You are to be My witnesses upon earth, channels through which My grace can flow for the healing of the world. So I will be your representative in heaven. The Father beholds not your faulty character, but He sees you as clothed in My perfection. I am the medium through which Heaven's blessings shall come to you. And everyone who confesses Me by sharing My sacrifice for the lost shall be confessed as a sharer in the glory and joy of the redeemed. 

Let us look to Jesus as the Author and Finisher of our faith and walk with Him in humble obedience to His will and plan for us.

[Sean James]

Praise the Lord for the blessing of receiving from Jesus the blessing of His word, His provision, and His healing. We can be truly converted and allow Him to manifest through us all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing, as we gladly obey the law of love!

When the question comes home to your heart, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" let not your answer be the response of unbelief. When the disciples heard the Saviour's direction, "Give ye them to eat," all the difficulties arose in their minds. They questioned, Shall we go away into the villages to buy food? So now, when the people are destitute of the bread of life, the Lord's children question, Shall we send for someone from afar, to come and feed them? But what said Christ? "Make the men sit down," and He fed them there. So when you are surrounded by souls in need, know that Christ is there. Commune with Him. Bring your barley loaves to Jesus. 

As we surrender all to Jesus there is no limit to what God can do in and through our lives!

[Sean James]

May we let the love of Christ constrain us in doing God's holy will! 

Love for souls for whom Christ died means crucifixion of self. He who is a child of God should henceforth look upon himself as a link in the chain let down to save the world, one with Christ in His plan of mercy, going forth with Him to seek and save the lost. The Christian is ever to realize that he has consecrated himself to God, and that in character he is to reveal Christ to the world. The self-sacrifice, the sympathy, the love, manifested in the life of Christ are to reappear in the life of the worker for God.

When Jesus lives in our hearts, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing! We can obey God from a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit!

[Sean James]

Through being overcome with sleep, the disciples heard little of what passed between Christ and the heavenly messengers. Failing to watch and pray, they had not received that which God desired to give them,--a knowledge of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. They lost the blessing that might have been theirs through sharing His self-sacrifice. Slow of heart to believe were these disciples, little appreciative of the treasure with which Heaven sought to enrich them.

Let us not be asleep spiritually but wide awake by receiving a living union and communion with Christ so we can grow more like Him constantly! 

Choose to be all in for Jesus! Surrender all and let Him lead you continually! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be in the life truly converted by His grace as God leads us in obedience to His law of love! 

[Sean James]

Let us recognize we need Jesus continually to do any good thing! Only abiding in Him is there an experience of all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing! Then we can gladly obey the law of God from the heart renewed by the Holy Spirit!

"To all who realized their need, Christ came with infinite help." {The Desire of Ages, page 475, paragraph 3}

God is faithful to heal our lives!

[Sean James]

Praise the Lord! Let us look and live! Jesus knows what we most need and is able to heal our hearts!

Jesus knows us individually, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows us all by name. He knows the very house in which we live, the name of each occupant. He has at times given directions to His servants to go to a certain street in a certain city, to such a house, to find one of His sheep.

Jesus is finding His sheep all around the world and guiding us to surrender fully to His grace! He renews the heart and mind by the Holy Spirit so all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in the life--without one missing! Then we gladly can obey the law of God from a heart made new!

[Sean James]

Jesus loves you!! He has the best for you!! Do not get distracted from Jesus and the word of God. Satan will seek to present subtle temptations to lead us in a path that is less than the biblical ideal for our lives, but God has a better plan--and that is that we all press together and be united, even though it means our own ways are laid down at the foot of the cross. When we live by faith on the Son of God, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing as we gladly can obey the law of love from the heart renewed by His grace. Turn away from sin and self and keep looking to Jesus without allowing anything to eclipse the loveliness of His character!!

 To the heart of Christ it was a bitter task to press His way against the fears, disappointment, and unbelief of His beloved disciples. It was hard to lead them forward to the anguish and despair that awaited them at Jerusalem. And Satan was at hand to press his temptations upon the Son of man. Why should He now go to Jerusalem, to certain death? All around Him were souls hungering for the bread of life. On every hand were suffering ones waiting for His word of healing. The work to be wrought by the gospel of His grace was but just begun. And He was full of the vigor of manhood's prime. Why not go forward to the vast fields of the world with the words of His grace, the touch of His healing power? Why not take to Himself the joy of giving light and gladness to those darkened and sorrowing millions? Why leave the harvest gathering to His disciples, so weak in faith, so dull of understanding, so slow to act? Why face death now, and leave the work in its infancy? The foe who in the wilderness had confronted Christ assailed Him now with fierce and subtle temptations. Had Jesus yielded for a moment, had He changed His course in the least particular to save Himself, Satan's agencies would have triumphed, and the world would have been lost.

Let us surrender all to the Holy Spirit and be like Jesus in a moment-by-moment union and communion with Him!!

[Sean James]

Let us look to Jesus and live and allow the light of His love to shine through us so the darkness of sin and unbelief are dispelled by His healing presence!

The way to dispel darkness is to admit light. The best way to deal with error is to present truth. It is the revelation of God's love that makes manifest the deformity and sin of the heart centered in self. 

Selfishness is death, and Jesus defeated selfishness when He died for us at the cross. Now as we by faith can look to Him in the sanctuary in heaven, we can rejoice to follow where He leads in the selfless path of life and life more abundantly to bless others! All of the fruits of the Spirit will be manifest in our lives without one missing as long as we have Jesus abiding on the throne of our hearts in true surrender and follow in true obedience by grace through faith! Jesus is preparing us for heaven!!

[Sean James]

Look upon Jesus and see what really matters! Let the things that are passing away not be the main focus in life, even while being faithful in our everyday responsibilities. As we share the three angels' messages of Revelation 14:6-12 and invite Jesus to guide us to follow Him whithersoever He goeth (Revelation 14:1-5), we can joyfully set our affections upon the kingdom of God and live a life to the glory of God! All of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing will be the supernatural evidence of our lives truly converted by His grace as we continually partake of His divine nature by receiving His exceedingly great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4)! May you affectionately obey God from the heart because Christ lives in you, the hope of glory!

Now, as in Christ's day, the work of God's kingdom lies not with those who are clamoring for recognition and support by earthly rulers and human laws, but with those who are declaring to the people in His name those spiritual truths that will work in the receivers the experience of Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Galatians 2:20. Then they will labor as did Paul for the benefit of men. He said, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20. 

Motivating others to follow Jesus by making His service appear attractive--as it really is--is such a joy!! May all you say and do today be a living witness of the loveliness of Jesus!